Your source for credible news Issue no 024
January, 2021
New evidence emerges highlighting France complicity in 1994 Genocide
NEWS
Ugandan propaganda attempts to deflect upon Rwanda blame for their violent elections won’t work Page 2
NEWS
In its last kicks, terror outfit FLN is hit with serious internal wrangles Page 4
NEWS
According to French researcher François Graner, the archives of former French President Francois Mitterand already consulted prove the complicity of French leadership in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Page 3 French newspapers have revealed.
Rwomushana and his boss hatred for Rwanda reaches Central Africa Page 6
Get a free copy of our e-paper
Stay Connected www.virungapost.com
NEWS
Issue no 024 January 2021
2
Ugandan propaganda attempts to deflect upon Rwanda blame for their violent elections won’t work Museveni would say this before a single investigation had been conducted.
By Alex Muhumuza As spillover from the recent violent election in Uganda catches up with the Museveni government, its propaganda organs have, as they often do, sought to drag in Rwanda. Citing claims by President Museveni, Chimpreports – a propaganda website run by one Giles Muhame who is on the payroll of Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI – this Tuesday ran the following headline: “Museveni warns Rwanda on meddling in Uganda’s politics.”
It didn’t take long for people to realize that the Ugandan state was behind the killings. Museveni was the one that had a problem with Abiriga, who had delivered Arua to the NRM, with promises of billions of shillings that he (Museveni) never delivered. Museveni was the one that had a problem with his police’s spokesman. He was the one that had serious issues with Kirumira, who was promising the public to spill the beans on state-sanctioned criminality in Uganda Police.
Uganda regime officials or propagandists have long made it a habit to try to drag Rwanda into problems of Museveni’s own making. It is a propaganda tactic to deflect attention away from him. In its latest anti-Rwanda article Chimpreports writes that Museveni, during his recent televised address to Ugandans when he proclaimed victory, “warned a country in the region against meddling in Uganda’s internal affairs.” Everyone that pays attention to these issues knows when Museveni says “a neighboring country”, or “a country in the region”, that is code for “Rwanda.” “There is a country in the region which has been sending agents to come to meddle in our politics,” Chimpreports quoted Museveni. However they fail to mention how this supposed meddling happened. Neither do they say which Rwandans are the ones Museveni alluded to. The people are supposed to just believe allegations backed with nothing. Or claims by Chimpreports that “officials said suspected Rwandan agents were on the eve of the January 14 election arrested in Kampala by security services.” Such propaganda has grown old. There are countless examples of accusations by Museveni against Rwanda that he, or his intelligence agencies, have never
In a video recorded before Kirumira was killed, he said: “a violent police force serves Museveni best as it is easily weaponized against civilians.” Kirumira paid for his outspokenness with his life.
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni – attempts to deflect blame upon Rwanda for the violence of his regime can’t work.
followed up with evidence in any form. Long before the unnamed “Rwandans” that Chimpreports claims were arrested before the elections, security organs like CMI have been abducting, harassing, illegally detaining, and torturing Rwandan nationals, on accusations of “spying”, or “illegal weapons possession”, or “kidnap”, and a slew of others. What has long puzzled people is that not a single one of these Rwandans – hundreds upon hundreds that were picked on such charges before Kigali issued a strong advisory against travel to Uganda – has been produced in a court of law. CMI and other security organs just hurl accusations, torture them, and the lucky ones are dumped at the borders if they still are alive. In other words the Museveni regime’s accusations against Kigali have never held any credibility. Museveni chose a policy to
destabilize Rwanda, began working with terrorist groups – mainly Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC – as proxies in that goal, and the anti-Rwanda hostility stemmed from that. Other than that, Rwanda has been a very convenient scapegoat upon whom to deflect all blame for crimes committed on the Ugandan ruler’s orders. We will give only three examples of the many high-profile assassinations of individuals that had problems with Museveni. When former Police Spokesperson DIGP Andrew Kaweesi was shot in 2017; when former MP Ibrahim Abiriga was gunned down a few meters from his house in 2018; when former Buyende Police DPC Muhammad Kirumira was assassinated the same year, all by motorcycle-riding assailants, each time President Museveni would be on TV in no time to insinuate “a neighboring country” was responsible.
But to hoodwink his citizens, Museveni kept attempting to pin these, and other crimes upon Kigali. Now he is trying to pull the same trick once again. Yet anyone that’s not blind, in this age of social media and instantaneous communication, has seen the violent crimes Ugandan security forces have perpetrated on the electorate. Which is why people won’t be deceived by insinuations of “Rwandan meddling.” When, according to news reports, people in Uganda protested against the arrest of Robert Kyagulanyi of NUP last November sparking off protests, it was not “a neighboring country” whose security forces conducted violent operations, shooting civilians in public massacres recorded on social media. The killers were Uganda’s own security forces. Museveni’s forces were the ones using cars as weapons of mass destruction. They were the ones kidnapping people, according to various reports, to torture them. On this issue, Museveni can’t deceive anyone.
Stay Connected
NEWS
Issue no 024 January 2021
3
New evidence emerges highlighting France complicity in 1994 Genocide By The New Times According to French researcher François Graner, the archives of former French President Francois Mitterand already consulted prove the complicity of French leadership in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, French newspapers have revealed. In 2015, Graner began a legal battle to gain access to all of the documents on French policy on Rwanda from 1990, left by the then French President, Mitterrand, in the national archives. The State Council granted him access in June 2020 and his report is expected around April this year, according to sources. But French media is already awash with bits of information on what his report will contain. Dr Jean-Damascène Bizimana, Executive Secretary of the
National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), on Monday, January 18, told The New Times that “for us we are waiting for the final report.” According to French newspaper, Le Monde, which has reported matters around the researcher’s discoveries, top French officials, altered information sent to Paris as the Genocide was happening. The newspaper notes that before the Genocide, Paris was receiving regular, clear and alerting messages about the situation as it evolved. A document dated February 6, 1991, Le Monde reported, proves this. Jacques Pelletier, French Minister for Cooperation, it is reported, is one of the people who did not hide his anguish. “Mr. President, the situation in Rwanda worries me more and more,” Pelletier wrote to Mitterrand.
“President Habyarimana does not guarantee the openness that he has been advised on several occasions … The government modifications seem to favor elements hostile to discussions with the rebels [of the RPF].” “Mme Habyarimana and her clan [around the first lady has formed a political and financial circle made up of Hutu extremists called the Akazu] have taken things in their hands … If this development continues, I fear that the regime will not be able to last very long.” Here the document is referring to Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, the wife to Habyarimana and key architect of the Genocide who currently lives in France. Mitterrand was president in France during the 1994 Genocide and was particularly close to ex-President Habyarimana. The European country stands
accused of aiding the genocidal regime at the time and often having a direct hand in the Genocide. Mitterrrand died in 1996. In April, last year, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote a letter to survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi In the letter which was addressed to Ibuka-France president Etienne Nsanzimana, Macron reminded survivors “of his commitment” to make sure the Genocide against the Tutsi takes its full place “in our collective memory.” In April 2019, Macron appointed a team of researchers and historians to look into archives of France’s actions in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide, a move then received with mixed reactions, in Kigali.
French troops during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. / Photo: Net.
Stay Connected
NEWS
Issue no 024 January 2021
4
In its last kicks, terror outfit FLN is hit with serious internal wrangles source. Since last year FLN has had a very tough time as many of its fighters were killed and some of its leaders now facing justice for their crimes. The remnants are disintegrating and are further weakened by internal wrangles. Some have been lured into joining Twagiramungu’s Intimirwa terror group. Among those who joined Intimirwa is the FLN’s former deputy head of military operation “Col” Alex Rusanganwa alias Guado who joined Intimirwa as the “Commander-In-Chief ”. He was followed by the genocidaire convicted in absentia “Col.” Hategekimana Anastase alias “Col” 49 , and other FLN militias.
French troops during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. / Photo: Net.
Felicien Hategekimana of hate radio “Ubwiyunge” at the center of a storm of wrangles between different anti-Rwanda groups.
By Joan Karera The preceding year has been a bitter one for anti-Rwanda terror groups following the arrests or deaths of many of their leaders, combatants, and endless internal wrangles. Analysts say this year might even be worse for them. Reliable sources say that in one of the anti-Rwanda terror groups, CNRD-FLN, the US-based Felicien Hategekimana, a journalist of the group’s online hate radio, Radio Ubwiyunge and a former member of FDLR, have been accused of “working for the enemy” to dismantle FLN. News reaching our desk is that Hategekimana has been working closely with former members of CNRD-FLN who were expelled from the terror group, including CNRD’s former deputy Secretary General Jean Paul Kalinijabo.
In addition, Hategekimana is also accused of “betraying his leaders,” by working closely with his close friend Faustin Twagiramungu and one “Col” Guado, to strengthen Twagiramungu’s new terror group Intimirwa by luring FLN militias to join it. Having been an FDLR terrorist for years, it is said Hategekimana has particularly been tasked by Twagiramungu to ensure the head of FLN’s military operations “Brig. Gen.” Hakizimana Antoine, alias Jeva, is assassinated because he is not a confidant of Twagiramungu. “These terror groups are crumbling due to serious internal wrangles, power struggles, and mutual suspicion since they were created for selfish reasons, mainly because of their hunger for power and money,” said our
These terror groups are crumbling due to serious internal wrangles, power struggles, and mutual suspicion since they were created for selfish reasons
According to security analysts, it has reached a point whereby almost all of the FLN members want to dissociate themselves from it by defecting to new rebel groups. They are haunted by their past and live in constant fear of being held accountable for atrocities and crimes against humanity that they committed. “But no matter where they will be, the long arm of the law will keep hunting them,” an analyst noted. “After realising that even those they thought to be powerful like Rusesabagina have been arrested they then understood that there is no doubt they too will face justice,” he added. FLN is responsible for the Nyabimata and Nyamagabe attacks that took place in June and December 2018 claiming the lives of nine unarmed innocent civilians, with assailants looting properties and burning down vehicles. The list of failed anti-Rwanda terror outfits that collapsed is long and includes that of Callixte Nsabimana “Sankara” called Rwandese Revolution Movement (RRM), Rusesabagina’s Parti Démocratique au Rwanda (PDR-Ihumure), the MRCD coalition, and others.
Stay Connected
NEWS
Issue no 024 January 2021
35
Ugandan Military Intelligence (CMI) abducts Rwandan priest that refused to join RNC and its terrorist activities By Jean Gatera News reaching our desk is that operatives of Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI, late last year abducted and badly tortured a Rwandan national, one Bishop Nyirimpeta Anasthase, who now is said to be in critical condition undergoing treatment. Bishop Nyirimpeta, a legal resident of Uganda and a founder member of the Uganda chapter of the ADEPR church, was abducted by CMI on 30 November the preceding year as part of CMI strategies to secure support for Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC – the main proxy terrorist group in Kampala’s efforts to destabilize the security of Rwanda. ADEPR Uganda chapter has been a CMI target for takeover, with the Ugandan military intelligence organ salivating at the prospect of using it as a recruitment ground due to its Kinyarwanda-speaking congregations.
For some time now CMI has been harassing the ADEPR Uganda church leadership and members because of their refusal to collaborate with RNC. In July 2019, for example CMI stormed a Uganda ADPER church branch in in Kibuye, Kampala, in the middle of a prayer service and arrested 40 members, including women and children. The victims were abducted in the usual CMI fashion, with its operatives, accompanied by police, swooping in, forcing the worshippers on vehicles, and taking them away to Mbuya torture dungeons. Nyirimpeta – who in fact no longer is a member of the ADEPR Church, but now is a bishop of the Living Water Church in Kampala – was abducted in the usual unruly manner: with no arrest warrant, and no idea why they were taking him. Uganda law provides that anyone arrested should be charged in court within 48 hours; however, as usual with CMI abductions, this procedure
never happened. According to our sources, Ugandan intelligence aims to infiltrate a Muhima pastor, Rwanyamuzira John, to take over ADEPR Uganda leadership, with a plan to use its structures to mobilize for RNC. At the time of his kidnap, the CMI men ransacked Bishop Nyiyimpeta’s house but failed to find any incriminating evidence. Instead they took from his home ADEPR church registration certificates, old booking ticket receipts and bank documents. Officially, Nyirimpeta is still registered as the legal representative of ADEPR Church in Uganda.
normalize bilateral relations with Rwanda, Kampala’s security operatives have continued their harassment of Rwandan nationals, or Ugandans of Rwandan origin in Uganda. Usually the victims will be held incommunicado, tortured, and later on, for the lucky ones that survive, dumped at the borders.
Sources from within ADEPR revealed that Nyirimpeta refused to hand over to Rwanyamuzira the registration certificate when the latter asked him for it. That was the main source of Nyirimpeta’s troubles.
“Harassment of Rwandans continues in Uganda, and Kampala’s support for anti-Rwanda groups has only increased,” said an observer of security trends. The analyst observed that infiltrating religious organization by planting “pastors” who serve as terrorist recruitment agents is a common tactic of CMI. “For instance one Deo Nyirigira of AGAPE Church in Mbarara became notorious as a terrorism recruiter and mobilizer,” he remarked.
Despite the Ugandan leadership signing a Memorandum of Understanding in 2019 in Luanda to
That’s what CMI wants to turn ADEPR Uganda chapter into: a façade for RNC operations.
CMI boss Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho. A Rwandan, Bishop Nyirimpeta is one of his most recent victims
Stay Connected
NEWS
Issue no 024 January 2021
6
Rwomushana and his boss hatred for Rwanda reaches Central Africa On January 5 this week President Museveni’s “former” spy chief, Charles Rwomushana, made a Facebook post with the title “The newly so called elected president of Central Africa from a very silly election.” Rwomushana was trying to discredit the reelection of the president of CAR in favor of former president and now rebel leader Francois Bozize. In the post, Rwomushana also claims that Rwanda is involved in a proxy war with Uganda in CAR and that Rwandan soldiers were being killed there. Rwomushana tries to compare the UPDF with RDF but fails miserably. The UPDF has failed in Somalia. Since deploying in Somalia more than 100 UPDF soldiers have been killed by Al Shabab and more than 200 severely injured. UPDF admits that some of its soldiers have been captured. Imagine what the actual figures are if these are the official figures that the Kampala regime admits to. The RDF on the other hand is a
well trained and capable army ready to confront any adversary that comes its way whether on national or internationally mandated duties. In CAR, the RDF was ready to provide security for peaceful elections at the invitation of CAR govt and to stabilize the country under a UN mandate. In this regard, the RDF is happy to make its contribution in efforts to stabilize that country from the ruins of the Bozize era. The citizens of CAR are appreciative of the RDF’s efforts and are happy that Rwanda is defending them from rebels. Rwomushana is bragging that Uganda supported Bemba to fight for Bozize. However, he forgets that Bemba’s involvement in CAR is what led to his indiction and conviction in the ICC. If he worked with his Ugandan boss as Rwomushana says, then this boss should have been a co-defendant in that ICC case. Even in this war between Bozize’s rebel forces fighting against the UN mission there
shows that the international community should identify and hold accountable those supporting rebels to fight its forces. Even though the rebels are getting a beating, they will stop fighting completely only if those aiding and abetting their attacks against CAR and the UN peacekeepers there to stabilise the country are held accountable. Rwomushana and his boss’s hatred for Rwanda has them supporting Bozize not because he was a good leader for CAR. By supporting Bozize, they are fighting the UN mission. Although Rwanda is in CAR under a bilateral arrangement, its mission there has a direct relationship with the UN mission. Moreover, it’s against international law to fight UN forces and high time those sabotaging peace are identified and dealt with. The CAR government has been open in condemning those enabling the conflict there. It’s high time the UN gives it the support it needs to bring to account outside actors who are
facilitating the rebels. As a starting point, the UN should ask Kampala to disclose its relationship with Bozize and the circumstances under which after his defeat he fled to live there, with the SFC providing him security before launching this war against the elected leadership of CAR. Rwomushana knows his boss has failed in Somalia and should tell him that UPDF is not and will never be the RDF. His forces have also been accused of looting, raping and selling arms and ammunition to the very forces they have been sent to fight wherever they are deployed. Rwomushana should not compare a professional army with a rag-tag force that has been transformed into a personal militia to brutalize and suppress citizens to secure one family’s interests. Their hatred for Rwanda means they will not stop at this provocation; they will keep trying to do more getting the same results.
Charles Rwomushana
Stay Connected
NEWS
Issue no 024 January 2021
7
Delusional anti-Rwanda conspiracies spew out of Museveni’s intelligence services By Jean Gatera The Kampala regime, desperate to spin its political troubles away, once again tries to drag Rwanda into their internal affairs. First Chimpreports, one of the numerous outlets of misinformation on the payroll of Ugandan Military Intelligence, CMI, claims that “Rwanda meddled in Ugandan elections”, but cites no facts. Matters continued when Trumpetnews – an outlet on the payroll of Internal Security Organization (ISO) and managed by one Nicolas Mwesigwa – on Tuesday posted a story titled: “Inside Rwanda’s plan to aid Bobi Wine, Tumukunde to potentially topple Gen. Museveni during elections.” Trumpetnews too provides nothing to support its claims. Their article, just like the Chimpreports one before it, claims, “Museveni sternly warned a country in the region (which means Rwanda and which Trumpetnews says as such) against interfering in the Uganda’s affairs.” Here already we can see Museveni’s usual scapegoating of Rwanda for crimes he himself perpetrates. In a bid to make their boss sound convincing, Trumpetnews (and other Kampala websites of misinformation) came up with the claim that “Museveni’s stern caution follows a number of arrests of Rwandan agents who were netted on the eve of the January 14 elections.” It is a shoddily constructed fabrication. If indeed there were Rwandan agents arrested why weren’t they displayed to the media? Who are they anyway? one would ask. They are faceless and nameless. In other words they are a fiction. The recent record of Kampala’s security organs victimizing Rwandan nationals, just because they are Rwandans, attests to this. If some Rwandans have been arrested, one can be certain those unfortunate people are like hundreds upon hundreds that in the recent past have fallen victim to arbitrary arrests, harassment, illegal detention, and torture by Ugandan security organs – most notably the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence
Security forces pictured in Kampala perpetrating violence in the country’s elections last week. The Ugandan propaganda machine is trying to deflect upon Rwanda Museveni’s culpability for these crimes.
(CMI). None of them is ever produced in court for the authorities to prove the accusations – ever since 2017 when Kampala stepped up its hostile stance against Rwanda and Rwandan people. Not a single individual that Kampala has accused of being a Rwandan spy, or agent has ever been given a chance for the public to hear their side of the story. President Museveni created the narrative of “Rwandan agents” or “spies” or “kidnappers” out of thin air to provide justification for his own policy of hostility against Kigali in which he enrolled various terrorist groups, chief of them being RNC of Kayumba Nyamwasa, as proxies in his plot to destabilize Rwanda. The Ugandan ruler’s talent at gaslighting is such that after creating this ficti-
tious narrative of “Rwandan spies”, or “Rwandan agents infiltrating Uganda”, is the very narrative he utilizes to turn Rwanda into a scapegoat for problems created by him. Trumpetnews, in a bid to sound credible, concocts a story that “Rwandan agents smuggled 20,000 satellite phones into Uganda in support of Ugandan opposition members.” The propaganda outlet also blames Rwanda for the opposition election tally software, U-vote, which is currently giving alternative electoral results. “These lies are just ridiculous,” even a Ugandan-based political journalist remarked, on condition of anonymity. “First they said Rwanda smuggled arms, then they said Rwanda was sending money, now they say satellite
phones. But we’ve never seen one of these Rwandans!” The analyst noted that satellite phones can be legally purchased in Kampala and even gave an address. “Just go to Gilat Telecom Uganda Ltd, in Bugolobi Kampala and order as many satellite phones as you want!” he laughed. The propaganda becomes more and more ridiculous. A man like Tumukunde, said to be on the payroll of Salim Saleh, is thrown into the anti-Rwanda allegations. “Please, whether Kyagulanyi, or Tumukunde, those are Ugandan affairs for Ugandans to decide, don’t drag us into your mess,” said an informed reader in Kigali.
Stay Connected
Engage with us and many other Virunga Post readers on our social media platforms
VirungaPost